Oneness

I spent last Sunday night sleepless; my heart was aching, my soul hurting. The pictures of the 3-year old Syrian boy washed up on the beach in Turkey, broke my heart. The state of the world just overwhelmed me and peace was nowhere to be found. Giving money to humanitarian organisations was not enough anymore. All I could hear in my mind was Aung San Suu Kyi’s quote:

’If you’re feeling helpless, help someone.’

Monday morning came, and I made a few calls to different organisations asking if there was something I could do to help. And a few hours later I sat in the office of Sweden for UNHCR helping them with administration work.
It’s not just the situation in Syria. There is so much cruelty, so much darkness and millions of people are on their knees – suffering, fighting hunger and fleeing for the sake of their lives.

Some people seem to think state borders separate us from each other, making us safe and distant from the horrors – and by that we don’t need to care. We think we can turn our backs towards it, and choose not to look. But that is a lie. We can’t escape it, it’s right there in front of our eyes. If you decide not to see it, and if you don’t act to make a difference, you are saying it’s perfectly okay. Can you live with that? We are ONE people, we inhabit this world TOGETHER, and it is each and everyone’s duty to help people in need. Who are we if we don’t?

Marianne Williamson was asked in an interview how she could believe there was a God or a higher power when there is so much cruelty in our world. In essence her answer was that it’s there for us to see for a reason, it’s a lesson we need to learn. It spoke to me. The Western world I live in sees the planet as ours to conquer. We take what we need. It’s an absolutely egocentric way of living, where we put the individual before the collective. Everything is CAUSE and EFFECT. We can’t exploit the world. We can’t escape what our actions have caused. We need to change our behavior, the world is crumbling down to its knees.

I have made a commitment to on a regular basis volunteer for Save the Children. I can’t do a lot, but I can do something, and that’s all we need to do. The world needs light-workers, and right now we need to step up. By spreading the light we can make a difference.
So I am stepping up, are you?